Senior exec posts still a male bastion

The number of women on the boards of ASX 200 companies has risen significantly in the past 18 months, particularly among the country’s largest companies, but the same progress has not been made in senior executive ranks, a study by the Australian Institute of Company Directors has found.

Australia still falls short of the US, Britain and Canada when it comes to women serving in senior executive roles, with women making up 8 per cent of senior executives compared to 12.2 per cent for FTSE 350 companies in Britain and 13.5 per cent for Fortune 500 companies in the US.

Around two-thirds of ASX 200 companies have no women in key executive management posts, the survey found.

Although 37 women have been appointed to ASX 200 boards since the start of the year, one-third of the top 200 boards do not have any women directors, the study found.

By contrast, only 12.1 per cent of Fortune 500 companies in the US have boards without any women.

A panel of directors gathered to launch the survey yesterday, including ASX chairman
David Gonski
, QBE chairman
Belinda Hutchinson
, and Macquarie Group chairman
Kevin McCann
, denied that enforceable quotas would improve those figures.

“International experience has shown that quotas on boards can have unintended consequences and are unlikely to result in any cultural change within companies or any improvement in the number of women in executive positions," author AICD senior policy adviser Anthea McIntyre said.

Norway, Spain, Iceland and France all have mandatory quotas for women on boards of listed companies.

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Women make up 12.7 per cent of directors of ASX 200 companies, up from 8.3 per cent at the start of last year.

The panel of directors agreed ASX 200 companies, particularly those in the top 50, have upped efforts to meet gender targets since the introduction of compulsory “diversity" reporting in January.

“You are already seeing a lot of targets being put out there by the major companies, which I think is very encouraging and it’s not just at the board level, it is at the senior executive ranks," Ms Hutchinson said. “Some of them are quite aggressive targets and I think it’s extremely encouraging.

“Most of the top 20, if not the top 50, companies have set some kind of measurable target."

The ASX has stated its aim to boost women on its board from 22.2 per cent to 33.3 per cent by 2015. ANZ says of the three board appointments it will make before its 2013 annual general meeting, at least one will be a woman.